ALL THESE PLACES HAD THEIR MOMENTS
THE FIRST WORLD TOUR
The Beatles belonged to every teenage girl. I feel like I was there at the birth of pop music. The Beatles are the Book of Genesis.
– Linda Grant, novelist and Beatlemaniac
If the first half of 1964 confirmed their new-found status, the second half of the year saw them discover just what that status really meant as they travelled the world, playing to their fans. Beatlemania had gone global.
In June, having left Ringo behind, on their first stop in Denmark, they had to contend with a stage invasion at the recording of a television show; in Amsterdam 100,000 people lined the canals as The Beatles waved from a barge, the police periodically fishing out those fans who had jumped in to get a closer look.
In Australia, with Ringo having rejoined the band, 300,000 fans greeted them in the streets of Adelaide and 50,000 fans applied for the 12,000 tickets available.
On their second visit to the US, in August 1964, they toured for thirty-two days, in twenty-four cities, giving thirty performances. The shows in Cleveland, Ohio and Kansas City had to be stopped to get the frenzied crowds under control. In Philadelphia, they were distressed to notice that their audience was all white. In Florida, they refused to go on unless the audience was integrated.
In Los Angeles, Martin was sent to their show in the Hollywood Bowl to record a live album. Sadly, it had to be scrapped, as the technology at the time couldn’t drown out the screaming. The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl was eventually released in 1977, though it was made using recordings from both their 1964 and 1965 shows at the venue.
It was almost a relief to get back to touring the ballrooms of the UK in October, dates organised by Epstein before The Beatles began filling bigger venues worldwide. They ended the year as they had begun it, with a run of Christmas shows in London and number one spots in both the singles and album charts.